Dodgers to open 2014 season Down Under

LOS ANGELES – Nine months from now, the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks will open the 2014 season with a two-game series in Sydney, Australia, the teams announced Wednesday.

The Diamondbacks will be the home team for the games March 22 and 23 at Sydney Cricket Ground, a storied sporting venue that has hosted Major League Baseball exhibitions as far back as 1888.

The series, baseball's first regular-season games Down Under and the first Dodgers regular-season games outside North America, has been in the works since September, Dodgers team president Stan Kasten said.

"It's another great step for us as we look to spread baseball around the world," Kasten said. "We're always interested in how we can expand our brand."

In preceding the start of the stateside regular season by more than a week, the series will follow six international season openers held in Japan, Mexico and Puerto Rico since 1999.

The stateside 2014 regular season will tentatively begin March 31. The Dodgers will play their usual Freeway Series exhibitions against the Angels after returning from Australia.

All players involved will receive additional pay to take part in the six-day trip.